Ron Paul

To know what is wrong with the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the nature of money. Money is like any other good in our economy that emerges from the market to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. Its particular usefulness is that it helps facilitate indirect exchange, making it easier for us to buy and sell goods because there is a common way of measuring their value. Money is not a government phenomenon, and it need not and should not be managed by government. When central banks like the Fed manage money they are engaging in price fixing, which leads not to prosperity but to disaster.

And from denial, or the comic and alcoholic, we shift to far more important things, such as acceptance, and actually dealing. Earlier we discussed the broad strokes about the imminent announcement by Ron Paul of his Plan to Restore America. Next, watch live as the Texan reveals the details of the only plan that has any sense of making even remote sense from a mathematical standpoint: start time 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT.

Today at 3pm on Las Vegas, perpetually ignored by the media on both the left and right presidential candidate Ron Paul will announce details of his $1 trillion proposal in government spending cuts, which will be the start of a process to balance the Federal budget in three . As Politico reports, "the Texas congressman will lay out a budget blueprint for deep and far-reaching cuts to federal spending, including the elimination of five cabinet-level departments and the drawdown of American troops fighting overseas." Amusingly, and if there is anything that will Paul brownie points with an electorate disgusted by those spreading hypocritical class warfare, "there will even be a symbolic readjustment of the president’s own salary to put it in line with the average American salary." Which will simply make it a given that every president going forward will have at least three laid off Hollywood scriptwriters preoccupied as ghost writers and writing presidential "autobiographies." For the royalties. But we digress. "The federal workforce would be reduced by 10 percent, and the president’s pay would be cut to $39,336 — a level that the Paul document notes is “approximately equal to the median personal income of the American worker.” We somehow doubt that even Paul will go as far as proposing a much needed overhaul of campaign finance, which basically forces every politician to wear sponsorship tags of all the Wall Street banks that have "gifted" a given politician and/or president in the past 5 years, but we can surely hope.

The Media Boycott Heats Up.

About a month ago, after everyone in the wholly conflicted media (just ask one question: who pays all that advertising money - nuf said), on both the left and the right, was ignoring the most promising presidential candidate this country has had in decades, Jon Stewart decided to take Ron Paul under his wing, and made it clear that while those who don't matter can pretend to ignore Ron, the one man who does, and who reaches more than most of the legacy "serious media" combined, has certainly noticed Paul. Naturally Stewart could have left it there, especially given his own personal political view. To his great credit, he did not. Instead last night in an extended exclusive interview, he presented Ron Paul in a way that he should have been presented from the beginning: no tricks, no gotchas, no gimmicks, no commercial breaks every 45 seconds. Hopefully this is the beginning of the transition of the Paul campaign to one where he has enough critical mass to be taken seriously by everyone - something "everyone" should be doing regardless.

It's hard to tell if the idea that Ron Paul cannot win in 2012 is more ignorant, in its complete lack of historical sophistication, or more arrogant, in its claim to certainty amid all the complexity of 300 million lives and the myriad issues that affect them.

The Republican presidential candidate whom everyone (at least in the mainstream media, on both the right and left, as they are, after all, funded by the status quo to preserve the status quo) has written off, has won his latest landslide victory, this time in a straw poll in California during its 2011 Fall Convention in downtown LA JW Marriott. The LA Times details what transpired: "One presidential candidate, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, spoke at a dinner on Friday night, and Saturday morning's breakfast featured two more contenders: Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter and Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Paul's fans were out in force both outside the hotel -- awaiting his arrival -- and inside the ticketed Lincoln Clubs Breakfast. He spoke last and was late, allowing McCotter to add a question-and-answer period to his prepared remarks." There was nothing substantially new in Paul's speech which can be summarized as follows: '"You ought to have a right to work hard, and you ought to have a right to keep what you earn." As for the straw poll, "Saturday at the convention also featured a straw poll, conducted between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific, with results announced during an evening banquet. Considering the large numbers of Paul fans who made their way to the Marriott, it's not surprising that he won the poll by a handy margin over second-place finisher Perry. But after the two Texans, the percentages drop precipitously, with Bachmann only managing fourth despite her convention appearance." Something tells us that nothing prevents "large numbers" of other candidate fans from making their way to the Marriott. The results: "Congressman Ron Paul (374, 44.9%); Governor Rick Perry (244, 29.3%); Mitt Romney (74, 8.8%); Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (64, 7.7%); Jon Huntsman (17, 2.0%)."

Ron Paul has released the following extended rhetorical inquiry on what the utility of the recent expansion (through very military means) of US and European interests in Libya has been, which more than anything exposes US hypocricy when it comes to foreign national interests. To wit: "Gaddafi may well have been a tyrant, but as such he was no worse than many others that we support and count as allies. Disturbingly, we see a pattern of relatively secular leaders in the Arab world being targeted for regime change with the resulting power vacuum being filled by much more radical elements.  Iraq, post-Saddam, is certainly far closer to Iran than before the US invasion.  Will Libya be any different?" And he follows up: " With the big Western scramble to grab Libya's oil reserves amid domestic political chaos and violence, does anyone doubt that NATO ground troops are not being prepared for yet another occupation?" Unfortunately, we will get the answer to this question quite soon, especially if a counter revolution in Libya, as many expect, does occur.

Ron Paul has another illustrious supporter - Jim Rogers. The Quantum fund co-founder, who has been spot on about pretty much everything for the past 3 years (see Roubini Versus Rogers Is Right Debate for 2010: Investor Jim Rogers thinks gold will double to at least $2,000 an ounce. Economist Nouriel Roubini says that’s “utter nonsense.” As these well-known market personalities duke it out, they’re doing us a favor by highlighting a critical debate: Which is the bigger threat -- inflation or deflation?), not to mention gold (to the amusement of such Keynesian soundbites recorded for posterity as the following: "Maybe it will reach $1,100 or so but $1,500 or $2,000 is nonsense"), and especially inflation (perhaps the only thing that will prompt a chuckle out of Gadaffi and Mubarak these days is someone telling them that their multi-decade reigns are over due to hyperdeflation and plunging food prices), was caught on tape voicing his endorsement of the only sane person who can possibly do something for this country. "In this election if Ron Paul gets anywhere near the nomination I would certainly support him. He is the only one that I've seen in American politics that seems to have a clue about what's going on." Zero Hedge agrees on all counts.

Our congratulations and belated birthday wishes to Ron Paul, who yesterday raised a sizable $1.8 million in a "money bomb" fund raiser in under 24 hours. As a reminder this is merely an appetizer of what Paul's loyalists can do, considering back in 2007 Paul raised over $6 million in the same time frame. Nonetheless, we find it ironic that the very same fiat confetti that Bernanke prints with reckless abandon is the same that will be used to hopefully one day end the tyranny of central banking.

Yesterday ago presented the mass media' self disclosure that it was ignoring Ron Paul for this reason or that. Today, Paul, whose support base has suddenly become the target of some aggressive lateral grab tactics by fellow GOP presidential candidates, was interviewed by CNN's Piers Morgan, in an Q&A seeking, among others, to find why it is that Paul, who to everyone's great dismay (not ours) may actually be the GOP's top candidate for the presidential position, is being slighted in his own view. Paul's take: "they're afraid of me, they don't want my views out there, they're too dangerous, we want freedom and we're challenging the status quo, we want to end the war, we want a gold standard, and their view is that people just can't handle all this freedom, they want dependency, they want socialism and welfarism, so I think they don't like to hear our views, but I think we'll make the best of it and we'll do very well." Paul proceeds to cover his relationship with Bachmann (disagrees with her views, as she is "not as far from the status quo as he would like her to be"), why Paul's anti-war program is a challenge not just to GOPers but to Obama as well, with his numerous war fronts, how Paul at 75 is finally resonating with the majority of the US population,  but most important is Piers Morgan's question on how Paul plans on becoming one of the fold and "making himself more electable", confirming precisely the bias that the idiot media holds against what can easily be the most honorable candidate in not just the GOP's but all party ranks. Paul's response: "why should someone soften their viewpoint on defending the rule of law and defending the constitution: that would be foolish. Extremists have been in charge for the last 4 years since they've been allowed to print money at will, so that's why we have overextended ouselves overseas, that's why we have inflation, depressions, inflations."...etc. When the mainstream media, and when Rick Perry, understands what Paul is talking about, that i when America will be worthy of a good president. Until then, it will have to make do with whoever win the popularity context in any given day, regardless of the amount of lies uttered in process. After all, as Morgan makes it all too clear, it is all just about "being electable" ... the same reason America is currently on the verge of the end.

Why? Because if "the unelectable one" were to become president, the financial kleptocratic, oligarchic status quo, which just so happens is the big legacy media's biggest advertising base, would be wiped out overnight. Next up: big media becomes very small media. The clip below from CNN explains it all.

The Ames Straw vote results out of Iowa are in, and Michelle Bachmann appears to have won with 29% of the votes, or 4,823 of the 16,892 votes cast. Bernanke nemesis Ron Paul placed second, just 150 votes behind Bachmann, at 4,671, or taking down 28% of the total. For those stupefied by this result, a source on the ground informs us that Bachmann proceeded to hand out 6000 free tickets at $30 each with a mandatory registration at her booth to gain concert entrance. Furthermore, final results were probably tabulated by the BLS. As for other frontrunners, Pawlenty came in a distant third with 14% or 2,293 of the votes. The Hill has more: "A House member has never finished in the top two; extraordinarily, two House lawmakers finished nearly neck-and-neck toward the top. Bachmann is the first woman to ever win the straw poll. "We’re very excited," said Alice Steward, a spokesman for Bachmann. "it’s a very emotional night for her, she’s excited and thankful all the hard work of the supporters and volunteers paid off...Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) won about 10 percent, pizza magnate Herman Cain finished at about nine percent, and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) drew just 35 total votes. Murmurs of huge crowds at Waterloo native's splay on the campus of Iowa State University persisted throughout the day, suggesting that momentum was with — and never waned — from Bachmann's campaign." Rounding off the field were Santorum with 10% of the vote, Herman Cain with 9%, write ins Perry and Romney with 4% and 3%, respectively, and Gingrich getting 2%. We are not quite sure if this is the cue to laugh or cry. Our money is on the latter.

Not one but two letters today (link to prior here) from a very digusted Ron Paul, in which he once again dissects the complete farce that is the "spending" cut bill (if by spending one means slightly lowering the angle of attack on future government expenditures well over and above the revenue slope) and also adds his thoughts on the farce that is the "Super Congress."

"No plan under serious consideration cuts spending in the way you and I think about it.  Instead, the "cuts" being discussed are illusory, and are not cuts from current amounts being spent, but cuts in projected spending increases.  This is akin to a family "saving" $100,000 in expenses by deciding not to buy a Lamborghini, and instead getting a fully loaded Mercedes, when really their budget dictates that they need to stick with their perfectly serviceable Honda.  But this is the type of math Washington uses to mask the incriminating truth about their unrepentant plundering of the American people.  The truth is that frightening rhetoric about default and full faith and credit of the United States is being carelessly thrown around to ram through a bigger budget than ever, in spite of stagnant revenues.  If your family's income did not change year over year, would it be wise financial management to accelerate spending so you would feel richer?  That is what our government is doing, with one side merely suggesting a different list of purchases than the other."